Castaways in Lilliput

Rating:
Summary: Still love it after all these years
Review: A wonderful children's book. I first read it in 1963 and still love it. Three kids wash up on an uncharted island. To their amazement it is Lilliput and they are the first "giants" to visit since Lemuel Gulliver. Of Course Lilliput has also modernized over the intervening centuries. The children try to find a way to return home, and although the Lilliputians are kind and caring, they wish to preserve the secret of their island home......How will it turn out? Well it's rather a surprize. Read it and find out!

Rating:
Summary: Imaginative Fun
Review: Hours of fun for young ones. An imaginative premise that can lead to wonderful discussions with children about being different, acceptance, and fitting in. I first read this book in third grade, then it disappeared from shelves and publishers' lists everywhere. The predicaments of both the children, seen as "giants", and the Lilliputians were quaintly novel to me then, as a child, but have stayed with me through these many years as I have searched for the book in used book shops, rummage sales, and yard sales. In this story, three Australian children find themselves castaways in the land of miniatures that Gulliver visited many years before. The Lilliputians try to be hospitable and the children try to be good guests, but sometimes the best intentions fall short. My grandchildren have had lengthy discussion about this story: deciding that although we might have the best of intentions, through no fault of our own, sometimes we just don't belong in a particular place at a given time. They enjoyed the comical ingenuity of the characters; such as lending a bedspread for use as a handkerchief, and the buckets and wagonloads of food it took for the Lilluputians to feed the children, etc. (Possible subject matter for future discussions about consumerism and ecology?) In any event, it was enjoyable to me as a third-grader back in the early 60's, and was fun for my grandchildren today - as were the imaginative discussions that took place during and after reading the book. NOTE: We did find the stylistic tone of the narrative to be somewhat dated, but it was entertaining for my grandchildren and they actually enjoyed listening to the pleasingly proper English grammar and conversational narrative.

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Summary: Big Adventures Come In Small Packages
Review: I'm so happy to see this wonderful book back in print. I would have to say that Children's literature is and always has been my favorite genre and I've read thousands upon thousands of children's books. When I say this is one of my favorites of all time, I mean it as high praise indeed. My 4th grade teacher read it to our class back in 1962 and I was captivated by it from the first page. Two brothers and a sister, Ralph, Jim, and Peggy, drift too far out to sea when they are rafting off the coast of Australia. In the darkness of night they do eventually wash up onto a shore...but it is certainly not a familiar shore in any way! It seems the kids have washed aground in Lilliput, the very land where Gulliver's story unfolded long before. There have been no other "giants" in Lilliput since Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians are as amazed and unsettled by this event as the children. Lilliput has continued to change and develop in the years since Gulliver's visit and theirs is a modern world not unlike the one the children have left behind, only much, much smaller. The descriptions are really delightful such as when one of the Lilliputians gives poor Peggy a bedspread to wipe her tears. The youngest brother finds ways of getting everyone into trouble and causing some hilarious predicaments. This book has lots of action and is such good food for the imagination that it stuck with me for over 40 years and is still as fresh in my mind as the day my teacher read it. Do the kids ever get home to Australia? Well...wait and see, but don't miss this book, it's the greatest.